Several Churches Burned in Canada in One Day; Suspects Arrested

Recently, churches in Alberta, Canada has been the targets for attacks and vandals. In July 19 at about 3.30am, a church in the city was gutted in fire. When Steven Faltas, a board member of the church got to the scene, he said,

"The street was completely closed and there were approximately four or five fire trucks all fighting the blaze. The scene was quite traumatic, surreal to be honest," Faltas told CBN News.

A Canadian media personality and founder of Rebel News, Ezra Levant told CBN News that the arsons "hit 43 churches and 10 were hit in a single day in Calgary. 10 churches, one city one day. That's shocking."

While reacting to the incident, the police said, "We are actively looking for suspects so that we can hopefully hold those who committed the acts accountable for the damage and the turmoil that they have caused." 

Meanwhile, the pictures of various suspects have been released for investigation by Calgary Police. A staff of Calgary Police Service, Kurt Jacobs said, 

"When a faith community is targeted for vandalism or arson it not only impacts those directly affected but leaves others in the same faith feeling unsafe."

The burning of the churches started when news filtered the media space that some former boarding schools for indigenous children (many of which were owned by the Catholic church) had hundreds of unmarked graves in them. Non-Catholic churches were also not spared. 

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it is ‘unacceptable’ for churches to be burnt in response to the unmarked graves that were said to be found in them. Meanwhile, members of Saint George’s Catholic Church recently had a vigil outside their burnt church. They also vowed to build the church again.

In his message to those who burned down his place of worship, Faltas said,

"The only thing that we can say to those perpetrators is that as Christian believers we forgive you. We obviously would love to have our church still standing but at the same time, we are strong believers. And although today may be a day of mourning, God will provide, and tomorrow will be a day of joy."